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While the CFPB has announced a grace period for TRID enforcement, there's no reason for lax preparation

President Harry S. Truman is famous for saying something that has always stuck with me: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." All too often, executives are only interested in enough success to make themselves look good. The end game for them is getting more attention, prestige, and glory for what they do. As a result, these executives are the ones who usually end up accomplishing the least.

The best leaders are probably those you've never heard of. They are behind the scenes pushing their people toward success, worrying about the results more than they do about the limelight. In fact, you can always tell a real leader from a phony by answering a simple question: which happens more frequently, the leaders talking about themselves or their employees talking about them? Great leaders don't need to talk about themselves – their teams will do it for them. But the ones who are just in it for the glory will take as much credit as they can, because no one else is going to give it to them.

In the mortgage industry, we need leaders who are focused on the work rather than on the recognition. If we really want to change the industry for the better, the best leaders among us will give all the credit we can to our teams. We'll want to motivate people to work harder for us by giving them the credit we deserve. When we take the credit for the success of our employees, we lose their loyalty. And that devotion is far more important than our egos. So, let's be great leaders and give the credit to those who really need to get it.